Thales

- arche: water made of everything

- empiricism: reality based on senses/experiences
Anaximander
Milesian philosopher
- arche: indefinite is 1st principle
- cant see it/touch it; only understand through reason
- rationality: reality based on rationale
- pay penalty/repair negations/opposites
Xenophanes
- 6th century rationalist
- theological approach god
- criticizes the notion that gods look like their followers, thinks
they should different/better
- 1st to introduce the idea of one god
- sees/thinks/hears as a whole
Heraclitus
- relativist
- flux: everything is in a constant being
- change is real
- ship of theseus: ship gets repaired and eventually has all new
parts, is it still the same ship?
- Nietzches interpretation: if everything is changing constantly so
does meaning, which makes things chaotic
ANaxagorus
- things are mixed or separated, not now or destroyed
Democritus
- there are a multitude of small things in one thing that we dont
think of all the different components but rather one object
- atom atomos (uncuttable)
- Simplicus said atoms collide/become entangled in shape, size,
position
- 2 basic properties of atoms: size and shape
- legitimate vs. bastard (senses)
- truth vs. doxa
- sweetness of honey is secondary quality
- Aristotles criticism of Democritus: do not define motion or cause
Sophists
- 5th century BC teachers
- plato and Socrates didnt like them
- no truth vs. doxa
Plato
- Socrates, similar to sophists, focusing on human practical
concern
- Method: examination/refutation
- Speaking vs. writing

What is it?

Euthyphro
- piety: doing the right thing
- ^righteousness? Pleasing god?
- Pious is1. Prosecuting the wrong-doer 2. What is dear to the
gods 3. What all gods love
- Is the pious loved by the gods bc it is pious or bc it is being loved
by the gods?
- thinks their shouldnt be a difference between killing a stranger
of your relative
- form introduced for the first time
Platos Apology
- Socrates: charged for not beliecing in the states gods, corrupting
youth, creating new deities
- Its dangerous in not knowing universal truth
- Demanded that people reflect on their own beliefs and values
- Demanded that people have the courage to be critical
- Distinctions between sophists (power of speech) and Socrates
- Socrates: trying to reveal truth; Sophists: no truth, beautify truth
- Thinks he is a little wiser bc he accepts he knows nothing
- No one is wise (thinking this makes you wise)
- How are you going to find someone wise if you dont know what
youre looking for?
- Official charges: corrupting youth, not believing in the gods but
other deities
- Refutes first charge because he did it unwillingly, not his fault
Phaedo
- theory of recollection (of forms/shapes)
- always recollect things from your past
- why are philosophes willing to die? Because you find out the
truth when you die
- practice philosophy to prepare for death (not concerned about
physical body/just soul)
- body is deceptive, therefore less important than mind
- we acquire knowledge through epistemology
- Metaphysics questions about reality
- Body is an obstacle because you always have to take care of it
Plato, Book I
- Justice for individuals
- Plato is very influenced by socrates truth
- Thought only a true philosopher could attain truth beauty and
the form of beauty
- Gaining the knowledge of ethical truth (justice)
- Not only asking other people questions (like Socrates), but also
giving some of his own insight

Search for truth gives you happiness/welfare

Is it always better to be just than injust?
Socrates starts talking about burden of old age with Cephalus
Believes old age brings peace, but peoples character determine
how difficult their lives will be
- How important is wealth?
- Character defines quality of life
- Wealth can help the poor, as theyd be less inclined to
cheat/steal
- Polemarcus: justice is given to each the things he is owed
- Second: friends owe it to their friends to do good for them and
never harm
- Thrasmachus: justice is the advantage of the stronger
(politically) Socrates thinks this is ridiculous
- Socrates thinks justice is advantage of weaker people & good for
everyone
Book II
- Socrates argues Gygees claim that doing wrong is desirable and
things justice is good
- 3 good things 1. Doing tihngs for a purpose 2. Doing things
that are good in themselves (joy) 3. The combination of 1 & 2
(justice)
- harm of the wrong-doer is worse than benefit of wrong-doing
- best option is to unite together due to our weaknesses
- The goal of politics: harmony or agreement among the citizens
about who should die
- Harmony requires that the city cultivates virtue and the rule of
the law
Plato, Symposium
- human soul/life from a psychological perspective (unlike PreSocratics)
- Main issues: 1. Eros (love and sexual desire) vs Philia (general
love)
- 2. Form of beauty
- aristophanes myth about love: 3 kinds of humans (male, female,
male/female)
- zeus split them in 2, so love is the desire to find our other half
- love is born into every human being
- 2 individuals becoming one: completing our original nature
- sexual preferences are derived form the sex of your origin
Aristotle, Physics (The study of natural things)
- 300 BCE
- joined Platos Academy at 17
- mentor of Alexander the Great
- studied science, nature

vs. Aristotle who believed beings have a nature that can be

comprehended, was a relativist
- distinguished between being (forms) and becoming (particulars)
- empiricist
- this doesnt support Platos 2-word ontology
- forms are not higher
- Platonic forms: Justice, Beauty, Good
- Aristotle: nouns that name ordinary beings; form = species,
nature is organized
- Forms are visible, sensible
- both were against relativist position of the Sophists
- natural being has within itself the principle of motion (kinesis)
and rest
- nature is directly related to motion
- a natural being has been made by nature and have motion
- Earth, fire, air, water
- If not forced otherwise by external causes, fire moves upward,
reaching their natural place
- Contrast: Democrtitus: a honeybee and a mug are no different
(collection of atoms)
- Believer of common sense, objects in this world are real
- Matter and form combine to make a material substance
- Form is the nature more than the matter is.
- 4 causes: explanations that lead to understanding
- 1. Material: what is it made of
- 2. Formal: what is it
- 3. Efficient: what produced/moved it?
- 4. Final: what is it for? Telos?
- Virtue Ethics: focusing on characteristic, not just action what
kind of person should I be, what life should I live?
- Purpose or telos: every action has a purpose
- Underlying reason for everything is to be happy
- Go through subordinate ends to get to the final end
- Eudemonia (Happiness/flourishing) not a state of feeling, not an
emotional state of fulfillment
- Not a fleeting good feeling, long-term constant good life
- Not subjective
- Feelings ephemeral vs. State of mind constant
- Not simply enjoying life, not living a life of luxury, but living a full
life/flourishing
- Life has purpose
- Complete puts a stop to our desires
- Virtues are necessary, but not sufficient to have a good life
- Requires action
Friendship
- friends are necessary they are external goods

Stoics
- stoic detached, isolated, indifferent
- epictus: Formal slave, started teaching when he was freed
- Stoicism: guide for living well
- Main issue: freedom and what is/isnt in our control
- Our opinion, pursuit, desires are all in our control
- Our body, property, nature is not
- A person uneducated about their own desires will blame others
- Chose to tame character
- Our capacity to reflect on our opinions/desires/judgements make
us different from animals
- Reflection>self examination/self-discipline
- Bad only exists because of us
- Sympathy is virtue but we must not let it overcome us
St. Augustine